A Tough Week.

A Tough Week.....

Yup.  That sums it up.  We are all tired, sore, sick, and overwhelmed.  Did I mention we are tired?  Greg and I are pulling super late nights because we are planning day by day.  I am still working in the Grade 7/8 position until a suitable replacement can be found, which may or may not be me.  I have lots of ideas for long term plans which require unit planning but until we know whether or not I will continue in the role, what is the point?  So, I am working on the curriculum and beginning assignments, but they are all short-term so that if and when a new person comes into the position, (s)he can start with their own assignments.

Although it has only been a four-day week, and we have only been in school for 6 days, it feels as though we have been here a lot longer and that school has been going on for months.  Part of it is adjusting to teaching in our new roles, but it also has to do with how friendly and welcoming people have been to us.  While we were waiting for our van to arrive, the taxi company in town was going out of their way to find a ride for me in the morning when they normally do not operate at that time of day.  The staff at the school are just fabulous!  They have been so helpful and welcoming, and during some moments of overwhelming craziness which I will not discuss on this blog due to privacy issues at school, they have been incredibly supportive to Greg and I.  I have made contact with the Nursing Station as well as the pharmacy in Inuvik, which sends prescriptions over to Tuk.  We have figured out what to do and where to go to get our NWT licences and health cards, and where Greg has to go to get our new polar-bear shaped license plate for the van.

We have had a heck of a time getting our internet hooked up...it was one thing after another, but we're all hooked up now after two weeks. We wound up having to wait for a Technician from Northwest Tel to come to our place and hook us up in person.  It also took a long time to figure out our Bell Express-Vu for TV, but Greg managed that too, after a few days.  It's all good.  We have TV and internet; two things to get us through a long and cold winter!

The kids are settling in nicely.  They have been attending their Inuvialuctin (I think that's how you spell it) classes at school, and learning how to say a few words here and there.  On Fridays, they play traditional games as well as dance.  The Language room is beside me, and I love to hear the drumming coming through the walls of my classroom.  We have been working on the referral for Patrick's speech therapy which seems to happen much faster in the north than in Southern Ontario, and at home, we hope to have unpacked the majority of our boxes this weekend.

Once we are unpacked, I will take pictures to show of our house.  It is such a great house,  so long as we can keep the heat regulated.  We have learned to keep the wood fire burning no mater what the temperature, although I think any nice, warmer days are past us now.  The elders are saying that the fall rains and winds are upon us now, and although the sun may shine, the temperatures will remain colder.  We have been in our winter coats already some days, and others our warm, fall jackets.  Either way, you can't go outside in just a sweater.  The wind blows right through you!

The other way to tell that fall is here is that the Arctic Ocean water levels rise.  When we first arrived the water was way out.  You could walk across a driftwood laden beach to meet it, and the waters were calm and blue.  Now, it mostly has whitecaps on it, and the rough waters come further inland.  The water has almost reached the road that wraps around the ocean by our house, and although it comes right up to the road, the road is built up high enough that it won't get flooded, or at least nobody seems concerned about it. I myself find it alarming to see the ocean 2 feet by my vehicle! Ah, but these are the lessons we need to learn, right?

So, we have learned to keep an eye on our house water supply, that internet and satellite TV are a huge hassle to set up (especially when you require a technician visit), hospital and health issues are quick to be dealt with, the way to stay warm in our house is to have a wood fire burning constantly and keep the furnace set at about 75F, and that it is perfectly natural to have an angry, navy blue Arctic Ocean nipping at my tires while I drive along the road.  I have learned much more about the students of the school, who have hearts of gold for the most part.  Of course, for those of you who are teachers, you also know about the high learning curve of a first year teacher, so add that on to my experiences, and you see why this past week has been overwhelming!  Top it off with a head/chest cold, cold weather, and running out into the community after school to various offices and buildings to gather the information we have had to gather in order to proceed with our settling in process, and that just puts me over the top for now.

I know that things will settle down.  They have to!  We had our honeymoon while we were driving across Canada, and it was wonderful.  It was the rest and relaxation we needed in order to gain the strength to settle in here....the calm before the blizzard so to speak!

I will blog some more later this weekend, once I take some more pictures of the community to share. Thank you to all of you who have requested more entries, who have gone into as Kari put it, "blog withdrawal".  I am committed to this blog just our hearts are committed to you, all our friends and family.  We have definitely all had our moments this week when we have pined for you, but reading your expressions of love, encouragement, and support has kept us going, and we want to thank you for this.  This just proves that you really aren't very far away from us at all.